Hobart man gets 9-year sentence after child molesting plea

A Hobart man got a 9-year sentence Thursday after admitting he molested a three-year-old girl in a plea deal.

Darese Bethley, now 23, pleaded guilty to level 3 felony child molesting.

As part of the deal, he serves seven years in the Indiana Department of Correction and two years on sex offender probation. He must also register as a sex offender.

Hobart Police arrested him in April 2022 after the girl tested positive for the same sexually transmitted disease he had, Capt. James Gonzalez said previously in a release.

Deputy Prosecutor Arturo Balcazar read a letter from the victim’s mother Thursday.

The woman wrote giving her child STD medication was the “worst pain I could have ever experienced.”

“No one wanted to believe what my baby girl said was true,” she wrote. The woman “questioned myself on what I could have done” to prevent it.

But the real question was, how could he do this to a child?

The girl was “smart,” “sweet,” “kind” and “free-spirited.” The child forgave him.

Balcazar said in court that it was a “very young victim” and a “heinous” crime, and Bethley took “some responsibility.” He asked Judge Natalie Bokota to accept the deal.

Defense lawyer Susan Severtson said she had gotten to know Bethley. He had no criminal history and it was “puzzling” how he ended up charged in a serious felony case.

He was “emotional” about the impact to the girl, she said.

Bethley didn’t want to put the victim or her family through a trial, Severtson said. The plea was a “fair resolution” and hoped it would give the girl and family some closure, she said.

He appeared tearful and dabbed his eyes with a tissue. Bethley apologized to the court, his family and the victim.

“I’m not going to make no excuses,” he said. “I made my mistakes.”

He would accept the sentence and try to be a better person.

“I put myself in this situation,” he said. “So, I gotta deal with the consequences. I know it looks bad. That’s not the person I am.”

Bokota told Bethley his crying “puts you ahead of 99% of the defendants that walk through that door.”

“You’re not a monster,” she said. “What you did was monstrous, and you know that.”

Like anyone with a “horrifying compulsion,” she hoped he would do everything possible to avoid hurting someone else.

“You strike me as someone (who will do that),” she said.

The alleged abuse happened between July 9-12, 2022 when a relative dropped off the child at his Hobart apartment to stay with him, Gonzalez said.

Bethley denied any sexual contact with the child, in an interview with police. He initially agreed to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases.

Bethley returned to the health department the next day for the test. He was initially uncooperative, nurses said. His first two samples had to be trashed, they said. The third returned positive.